Spider Baby - 1967

 Cruising through podcasts, getting inspired to watch a werewolf movie specifically, but I hear this recommended as well and then I go start the movie several minutes later.

Spider Baby was a small budget black and white horror movie that came out several years after it was filmed in 1964, and marks a later era film for star Lon Cheney Jr.  Lon plays the uncle of two demented young girls and one full on insane boy.  Sid Haig plays the boy in an early role for him.

The story begins with the delivery of a letter to Lon Cheney's family.  The mailman is killed when one of the girls lures him into the window of the house and the other girl stabs him with a knife.  This has clearly happened before, and Lon emotes a bit of disappointment and disapproval, but more bad news comes when the letter reveals that some of their distant family is to arrive that day.

When the family arrives, the characters are more revealed.  One of the girls is obsessed with spiders and basically considers herself to be one, her killing game akin to trapping a bug in a spiders web.  The other girl is a bit more sane than that, but not by far, and Sid Haig is just a complete insane weirdo who is also a bit butal and/or blood hungry.  We go from there as the family meets, and the characters get roped into each others lives.

It's a very strange movie, and it's for sure a forerunner to what I feel would become the groundwork for some of the psychological horror present in a filmmaker like Rob Zombie's work.  This was a prime hunting ground for like 2002-era horror movies where the characters are not just evil but also twisted, and their twisted obsessions were explored as almost equal to their destructive desires.  I'm sorta glad that trype of horror is gone, but yeah this was definitely an early foray into it.

This being an early exploration, it does manage to unsettle a bit.  The sheer perversity of these characters gets under the skin a bit, and tiny moments speak volumes.  There's also quite a high body count, and the movie moves quickly, and overall I would say this was quite a head of it's time.  I think this is a great horror movie perfect for those who want to explore the genre, and I give this 4 stars.

FeardotCom - 2002

 Originally intended for Zalman King?  The director of Blue Sunshine?  Damn, why could that have not worked out?

FeardotCom has been an oft referenced film on this blog, one of which I have always wanted to see.  I love this little subgenre, niche, whatever you want to call it, where a new technology comes out and that is the focus of the terror.  I mean, is not Slenderman a somewhat recent, somewhat example of this?  Social media used as the source of the scares.  

FeardotCom stars Stephen Dorff, Natasha McElhone, Jeffrey Combs and Stephen Rea is the story of a ghostly evil website where people go to and witness live kills...  Or something.  Its at least implied that's what they're doing on the website, never definitely shown, and sometimes it just seems as though you click around and then you are doomed to die in 48 hours.  Detectives Dorff and McElhone investigate, and we go from there.

This movie was not the obnoxiously stupid movie I wanted it to be, it got kinda close, but it was too boring and slow.  I wanted a gloriously early 2000s idiot-fest full of awful CGI, jargon talk about the internet, and nu metal.  But this is too plot driven with too many boring investigation scenes.  Again, this reminds me of the middle of the Hellraiser run.  I mean, literally replace the girl on the website with Pinhead and this movie is that.  They never do explain how the girl on the website would know the characters names, but obviously we know Pinhead would know that.

FeardotCom does have the hilarous website of FeardotCom.com in the movie, likely because the actual fear.com was taken.  So it is fucking stupid, and just not fun stupid.  Which means it gets like a 2.

A Murder of Crows / Jennifer 8 - 1998/1992

 Someone please stop me from watching these.  Someone, help!

I love it, to be clear.  I thought about writing a review for the Cuba Gooding Jr movie Murder of Crows, then opted not to.  Then I watched Jennifer 8 which was another serial killer investigate-y movie and thought, surely these two could share a mini review.

A Murder of Crows had Cuba Gooding Jr only a few years after his Oscar for Jerry Maguire, and boy had the man taken a significant down grade in movie quality.  Two years later he's starring with Tom Berenger in a sub par murder mystery movie.  Yikes!

Cuba is a lawyer who grows a conscience and loses the job, only to be left dry of opportunity when he meets an old man who gives him a book he's written.  The book is titled A Murder of Crows, and is about a series of lawyer murders.  Old man dies, Cuba published book, turns out book is based on reality, and now Cuba is framed as the suspect, and is on the run to find the real killer.

Jennifer 8 stars Andy Garcia as a investigator who is on the case when a hand is found at a local garbage dump.  He is sent to interview a possible witness, a blind woman played by Uma Thurman in an early role, and they begin to form a romantic attraction while the case obviously has more bodies turn up and intrigue build.

The things these both have in common is the tropes they follow.  The cop falling for the witness is an obvious trope, and the main character framed for the murders is the other.  They also both have elaborate genius level games the killer follows, and both involve a twist, both involve the killer going after someone close to the main character....I mean damn, they're very much "follow the formula" movies.

Jennifer 8 is better but slower, Murder of Crows is just downright bad.  I give Murder a 1 and Jennifer a 2.5.

Resurrection - 1999

 Let's keep this streak going as long as we can huh?  Loving these dumb 90s-00s thriller horror mystery movies.

Resurrection is directed by Russell Mulcahy and reunites him with Christopher Lambert from Highlander.  This movie was not released in the US, where it came out straight to DVD or VHS or what have you.  This one is more of the same as we've had in plot so lets get to it.

Lambert is a cop and a body turns up missing an arm.  That leads them to another missing an arm, and a guy that looks like the stereotype of Jesus missing his head.  There's a killer out who is trying to reconstruct the body of Jesus Christ, to create some sort of a resurrection before Easter comes.  It's a ridiculous plot for a ridiculous movie.  

The second or third, fourth fifth tier of this movie is palpable in every way.  When we get to a crime scene, the camera work goes all "mega cool" with skewing the image and twisting it around, going to mega slow mo and thrashing hand held shots.  Then super fake way too red blood is sprayed everywhere and torrential rain comes crashing down... its style over substance in every way feasible.

The plot is solved about an hour into the movie, and from there we still have 45 minutes, which is a huge problem, and in the end, its overly convoluted and ridiculously stupid.  Its a completely insane movie which totally fits both the type it is, and the year it came out.  The movie is almost so bad its good, its also almost kinda okay in just  conventional way...but its not, so it gets a 1.5.

Fallen - 1998

 I'm really enjoying this weird run of unknown late 90s thrillers that were either similar to Se7en, and honestly even the Hellraiser movies fit into this category loosely, which is probably why I liked those so much.

Fallen comes up and its 1998, something about copycat killings or deaths that continue.  This instantly makes me think of Copycat, which I liked, so naturally I put on Fallen.  Denzel Washington, John Goodman, Donald Sutherland, and Elias Koteas star in this strange movie which also reminded me a little bit of the far-in-the-distant-past God Told Me To.  That movie explored "what if that excuse was true?"

Fallen takes on a similar route, because it might be the only movie which explores, "what if the idea of demon possession was real?"  Demon possession as the claim when some real life people kill, as when some people explain it to themselves, aghast that a real person could have committed some heinous act.  They shake their head and wonder what ol' Beezlebub or whatever is up to.

I just fell down a quick IMDb rabbit-hole trying to find more movies like these.  I started this with Oxygen, I watched Bone Collector, and then Hellraisers got me really into this, and recently Suspect Zero and the others have really isolated:  this weird little time and genre was really fun, cuz it was very dark and weird, but also tonally very all over the place, with a ton of experimentation.  Nothing speaks to me as much as vibe movies, too, which most of these very much are.

Plot-wise, Fallen has Elias Koteas get the gas chamber in the beginning, and his essence leaves and hops body to body to continue to fuck with Denzel Washington as Hobbes, the detective who got him captured.  Eventually Denzel uncovers the evidence that Azazel is the name of the demon which was infesting Koteas and is now free, and as unlikely as that idea seems, it eventually gets proven true, and now he's up against a supernatural force.

The movie is definitely a vibe film, and as it goes on it harkens back to classic film noir, especially through the soundtrack.  That move was definitely not one I expected, and the atmosphere in this one is seriously interesting.  It makes this stick out and become cozy, which I guess is the other piece of the puzzle about why these are hitting for me.

Whatever the reason may be, these are great and I'm enjoying them, and I give this 4 stars.

Wicked Stepmother / Deadly Illusion - 1989 / 1987

 I had a Larry Cohen double feature just now, for no other reason than they were both free online and I generally like the guy.  Good thing I didn't start with these two or I might not have watched more of his stuff.

Wicked Stepmother I didn't even finish honestly.  I might later today, depending how much is left, but I also might not.  Nothing is really worse than a bad comedy, and while I have seen worse than this, it's just not interesting or entertaining, and I can't even really follow the plot, mostly cuz I'm completely not paying attention, looking up campsites on my laptop while its on in the background.  Who gives a shit.

In Wicked Stepmother, Bette Davis has her last role as an evil stepmother who marries old guy Sam and changes him into a TV-watching, hair-growing slave.  Better Davis left the movie midway through, so her character also takes the form of a young beautiful woman who charms and plays with the other people in Sam's family, and it kinda just keeps going, seemingly without a real plot or laughs.

In Deadly Illusion, Billy Dee Williams is a private detective who is approached by a man and asked to kill the man's wife for $100,000.  Billy goes to the woman and sleeps with her but does not kill her, and the next day she turns up dead anyways and he is the prime suspect.  Complication builds and builds, and the story takes some twists and turns, and yeah, that's about it.

Both of these feel like pretty second tier B movies, not in a thoroughly bad way, but just in a shrug-worthy way.  I doubt most people would have anything to say about this after watching it besides, "Uh, yea, you know, it was fine."  Wicked Stepmother is outwardly bad, but Deadly Illusion would be a great candidate for my eternal question, "what random ass movie should get a sequel now?"  Deadly Illusion 2: The Illusion Returns.

I dunno.  I'll give Stepmother 1 star and Illusioon 2.5.

Miracle Mile - 1988

 In the first 10 minutes of this movie I realized I had seen it before, years back in one of my "apocalype films" runs where I was watching a bunch of movies of that type.  I stuck with this and rewatched primarily cause I remembered this movie being really good, and on rewatch I was not disappointed.

We start with a nice location shooting at the LaBrea tar pits, which was walking distance from where I used to live in LA if you wanted a bit of a long walk.  Harry is a schmo-regular-man without a real life, finally finding a girl he likes and arranging a date with her.  They decide to meet at a restaurant at 1am, Harry oversleeps, comes there late, and intercepts a random phone call with a stranger telling him the world is about to end, nukes have been launched, and the apocalype is coming.

What's awesome about this movie is the almost real-time unfolding of what happens next.  We follow Harry as he tries to figure out what's going on, tells people around him, and then decides to try to get to this girl he just met, Julie.  As he involves more people, things get more and more complicated, and as they begin to react, the world gets more and more chaotic.  Soon, a panic has set in and Los Angeles is plunged into a riot.

Miracle Mile is a unknown of, bomb movie which I don't think has been reclaimed by the cult film scene, and it's movies like that that make me love movies and keep searching for more.  This movie hits all the right keys, and thats not even a stupid pun in regards to the excellent score by Tangerine Dream.  Its creepy, fun, adventurous, tense, dark, and comic when it needs to be, and it masters the pacing phenomenally.  The best thing about this is the slow ramp up, and by the end you might very well be on your toes cringing worn out by the stress of this pretty short, low scale movie.

This is the type of thing to seek out, this is the type of thing that freaks like me are doing this whole "movie watching thing" for.  I loved it and I give it 5 stars.

The Petrified Forest - 1936

 FUCK! I guessed one year off. 

I'm going back to Bogie. We just don't have actors like him anymore. To jump into that,  I'd say this: this role is almost expressly written to go unnoticed. He barely has any dialogue, and almost all he does is de-escalate the situation. He is dry and sarcastic, a real dick and killjoy. But he stands out from the postcard Hollywood of everything else in this movie, practically popping in like someone from now being all like eh... this shits kinda lame and wack, doncha think? Bogie annihilates the role,  no wonder he got noticed.

Based on a play, we get one of my fave things: minimalism. We got one set and mostly one room,  actors talking and yes, it's very entertaining. 

British lad Alan is wandering Arizona when he finds a hole in the wall restaurant where Gabby works but has bigger dreams. They hit it off and fall in love immediately. Meanwhile villain Duke and his boys are escaped convicts and radio broadcasts tell of their trip through Arizona. The criminals meet up with the star crossed lovers and the other shady characters in this nowhere town. 

Funny, witty, but also simultaneously cliche beyond all words, this is something to behold. There's meditations on fate, love, destiny, dreams, reality, and everything in between. There's racial commentary. There's gramps, who's just thrilled to be there and wants to watch the bloodshed. It's all over the place. 

I had seen it before but not reviewed it,  and with rewatch it holds up. I love this movie. 

Nymphomaniac - 2013

 This is in fact the entire Nymphomaniac, parts 1 and 2, just didn't note it in the title. 

I have elevated Lars Von Trier to one of the most human directors in my head recently. After Melancholia, The House that Jack Built, and Antichrist, I jumped into Nymphomaniac while I digested a weed edible. No I did not see all those movies in one day. 

Nymphomaniac actually got a theatrical release, a bit, and probably chopped to all hell here in the US.  It's on Hulu currently in the unrated (read: graphic AF) directors cut,  which is what I watched. 

The plot is very simple so let's just say it. A man finds a beat up woman in the street and brings her home. Her name is Joe and she begins to recount to him her life story as a self diagnosed Nymphomaniac. Her story begins "I first discovered my cunt at age three" and if you don't like that turn it off, cuz that's what you're in for. 

The fascinating thing about this movie is first of all the novelty; even in a porn obsessed culture it finds fascination with the sexual acts, as well as the underlying humanity, emotion, and connection or lack thereof. Joe is a complicated,  vengeful,  dynamic and thoroughly understandable person with wants and needs, cruelties and loves.  If anyone thinks this was a great way to see nudity and went as a teenager,  I wonder wtf they thought when they walked out.

Part one is Joe's promiscuous youth,  loss of virginity and anal virginity,  getting into the real world,  and falling in love. Part two is her attempt at normalcy,  discovering submission, and a lesbian relationship which crumbles.  Both of these parts are told to asexual intellectual Stellan Skarsgård, who occasionally comments or asks questions but mainly acts as an audience surrogate. 

Shia LaBeouf is her love interest, Mia Goth is her childhood friend,  Willem Dafoe is in a small role,  and otherwise it seems to have very real people,  and depict very real sexuality. This is not a sexy movie,  though,  I would argue. I think there is a deliberate choice to have the actresses not seem very pleased and blown away by their orgasm and to not seem like sexpots as we might expect in the traditional way. They act like an alcoholic might with a beer,  he drinks it without noticing,  without desperation or joy. Detuned, in a pattern,  unaware. This movie is not lascivious. It is merely about a process,  one which it views as akin to any other process. 

This is one which will sit with you for a long time if you get it. The ending is very important and quite unexpected,  and I wasn't sure I liked it. But I've been sitting with Part Two and digesting it,  and overall there's just a LOT to talk about with this movie. 

This movie is why film is important. This is art, this is designed to make you think,  this is a challenge and it is about something we don't talk about enough, the human Condition. Or to put it another way,  Soul. 

I loved it and I give it 5 stars. 

Copycat - 1995

 The year is 1995. Se7en comes out and changes thriller cop films and ushers in a new Era of extremist grungy 90s aesthetic. But what ELSE came out in 95?

Copycat is by all definitions "some thriller movie" that most people don't acknowledge and which was certainly glossed over that year in favor of Se7en, which beat it to release,  but according to Wikipedia Copycat had some success and good reviews. 

Sigourney Weaver,  post Alien 3, stars as an agoraphobic psychologist or something,  and she helped stopped killer Cullum. Now a new serial killer is active in San Francisco and once again Weaver is tapped by cops Holly Hunter and Dermot Mulroney to help. Soon enough Weaver discovers their serial killer is copying well known killers from history, and that he is somehow connected to Cullum, who she stopped years ago. Thus, the new killer may be after her. 

It's a solid cast,  and the dynamics of Weaver and Hunter together are nice. I guess originally Hunter was to be a male and love interest for Weaver,  glad they lost that angle. The new serial killer Foley is the weakest link,  and this definitely leans into the uber genius/ mega stylist way that all killers in modern media are depicted.

It's fine! It's solid. It's forgettable. It made me wonder,  though,  which completely forgotten nothing movie would be funniest to get a sequel now. The movie would have to be in no way well known, not very successful but not a complete bomb. No impact but large enough in scale to where it actually was released. I guess I'm saying Copycat here is a good candidate. I would go see Copycat 2: Copykill. Everyone is still alive. Cmon Hollywood. 

I'll give this 3.5 stars

The Stunt Man - 1980

 Wow.  I was way off on my guess of the year this one came out.  Feels a lot more 70s to me.

The Stunt Man is a relatively well known cult type film, one a bit off the general radar but still well within the overall realm of these kinda things.  We got Steve Railsback and Peter O'Toole in a genre which is kinda gone, one which I sorta forgot about...  This is the "whoa dude Hollywood is so wacky and crazy and there's drugs and girls and you'll make millions or it'll destroy you...wow dude" 

What was the last one of these types of movies?  Immediately I think of Boogie Nights and sort of Almost Famous.  Movies wherein its kinda a dramatic comedy, I guess, and its about the disenfranchisement of someone discovering their dream is not what they thought, or its a riotous romp about the insanity and audacity therein.  Once Upon a Time in Hollywood does not count, because it's about the Manson family stuff more.

The Stunt Man starts with a criminal, Railsback, escaping the police and bumping into a film crew.  He gets tapped to perform stunts by the directer, O'Toole, who takes an instant liking to him.  Railsback is promised to be protected and make money if he signs on to perform stunts in the movie, and soon he discovers success and happiness in this new niche group.  But things, naturally, are not all they seem.

I could easily see why this is in the cult realm, and I can easily see why people might really like it.  It has wackiness, silliness, and incredible stunts.  Its all real, and it shows some of the golden age of Hollywood insanity which truly must've been fun and fucking fucked up to be a part of at one point.  

It moves a bit slow and it really plays up the drama in the last part, which also highlights some of Railsback's relative inexperience as a film actor.  I hate to say it, but he just is not right for this part, or maybe its the writing I don't know.  Sometimes in the end its kinda amateurish.  But it's also bogged down by weird and convoluted writing and its sorta a who knows general feeling.  So, it doesn't stick the landing and that makes me give it about a 3.5.

By the way....  My guess for the year was 1974.  This is straight from Wikipedia: " The script was first written in 1970 when the rights were first sold. The film was shot in 1977 with post-production conducted in 1979. The picture had trouble getting distributed until 20th Century Fox picked it up and released it in 1980."  I fucking knew it wasn't 1980.